In an effort to award funding to students in a timely manner and by the payment deadlines, we established priority deadlines for the submission of the Notice of Award (NOA) requests.
Fall – June 1
Spring – November 15
Summer – April 1
Please remember to submit requests using the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships webform and be sure that the PDF signature page is attached. Incomplete NOAs will not be processed until a completed request is submitted.
TUITION/FEE REIMBURSEMENT
Some fellowships and grant programs provide tuition and fee reimbursement. Students who meet the criteria of a variety of programs at the undergraduate, graduate and PhD level may receive funding that pays for tuition and fees.
STIPEND
A stipend is a payment made to an individual under a fellowship or grant to provide for the individual’s living expenses. A stipend is not considered compensation for services. Students must be academically associated with the activities of the sponsored project to receive a stipend. Stipend recipients may work on the activities associated with the award, in pursuit of their academic goals, but are not allowed to perform compensable services, present or future, for the project in exchange for the stipend. Eligibility for a stipend must be determined based on the terms and conditions of the agreement.
Stipends are considered Estimated Financial Assistance (EFA) for purposes of determining eligibility of other forms of financial aid (federal, state and institutional).
Both tuition/fee and stipend payments are considered Estimated Financial Assistance for purposes of determining eligibility of other forms of financial aid (federal, state and institutional). Tuition/fee and stipend payments will be counted as resources toward a student’s financial aid package, which may result in loan reductions or other adjustments.
Students have the option to submit a Cost of Attendance (Budget) Adjustment Form to potentially increase their financial aid budget for additional educational expenses
Here is an example below of a student receiving financial aid and a tuition or stipend award.
Graduate Student Cost of Attendance $24,000
Original Unsubsidized Stafford Awarded - $20,500
Remaining need or eligibility = $3,500
Scholarship Team receives notice of award indicating the student will receive tuition and fee reimbursement for $5500 and a stipend for $10,000. Since the student has already been awarded the maximum in federal aid, an adjustment must be made to the student’s total award. Revised award as follows:
Graduate Student Cost of Attendance $24,000
Tuition and Fee Reimbursement - $5500
Stipend Award - $10,000
Remaining need or eligibility = $8,500 (revised student loan amount)
Students may request a cost of attendance increase based on extenuating circumstances such as unusually high mortgage or rent rates, large medical expenses, dependent care, etc. If students submit a request to increase the cost of attendance, additional loan money can be awarded along with the tuition and fee reimbursement and the stipend.
Colleges and departments complete a Notice of Award (NOA) webform to request tuition/fee and stipend payments for students.
All requests must have the PDF signature page attached with the appropriate approval signatures of the Principal Investigator or Department Manager.
The requests using a project ID must first be routed to College Research Administration if a grant account is used to award a stipend or tuition payment
Requests must be routed to payroll if the student is a non-U.S. citizen being awarded a stipend. The payroll office will determine if the student must be assessed taxes on the stipend payment. Non-U.S. citizens receiving tuition payments only do not require a review from payroll.
The completed requests with all required signatures can then be submitted through our webform for processing. Notice of Awards are processed in date order received.
Fiscal Services will process refunds for stipend payments only if the student does not owe a balance.
The instructions to complete the Notice of Award (NOA) webform and signature page, are available on the UTSA SharePoint public folders under NOA Salesforce Instructions.
In an effort to award funding to students in a timely manner and by the payment deadlines, we established priority deadlines for the submission of the Notice of Award (NOA) request.
Fall – June 1
Spring – November 15
Summer – April 1
We have two high peak periods which occur in May to mid-October, and January to mid-February. Turnaround time can extend up to four weeks during these times. Turnaround time begins when a completed Notice of Award request is submitted using the webform.
Incomplete NOA requests will not be logged onto Banner as received until a completed form is submitted.
The following dates represent when tuition and stipend awards will be disbursed to students.
| Tuition Dates | Stipend Dates | |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | August 16, 2024 | August 23, 2024 September 25, 2024 October 24, 2024 November 17, 2024 |
| Spring 2025 | December 16, 2024 | December 17, 2024 January 24, 2025 February 24, 2025 March 25, 2025 April 24, 2025 |
| Summer 2025 | May 22, 2025 | 1st disbursement - May 23, 2025 2nd disbursement - June 24, 2025 3rd disbursement - July 25, 2025 |
| Fall 2025 | August 15, 2025 | August 22, 2025 September 25, 2025 October 24, 2025 November 17, 2025 |
| Spring 2026 | December 15, 2025 | December 16, 2026 January 26, 2026 February 23, 2026 March 25, 2026 April 24, 2026 |
Many factors can contribute to a delay in processing your requests. If your requests cannot be processed, you will be notified of the delay.
The most common occurrences are missing signatures from the Office of Sponsored Projects and/or Payroll. Forms will not be processed without all required signatures.
To allow tuition and stipend awards to be disbursed through Banner, all accounts must be assigned a Banner fund code. New accounts require set up before they can be posted. This process extends the processing time since it requires collaboration between the Financial Aid & Scholarships office and Financial Services to establish the fund codes.
Stipends will not be disbursed if the student does not meet the enrollment or GPA requirements stated on the NOA request. Graduate and Doctoral students are required to be enrolled a minimum of 9 hours and have a 3.0 GPA. Undergraduate students are required to be enrolled in a minimum of 12 hours and have a 3.0 GPA. Departments will be contacted regarding students not meeting the enrollment and GPA requirements. If you have given prior authorization to release a stipend based on a certain GPA or enrollment (this criteria must be included on the Notice of Award request), we will release the stipend based on your instructions. We will not release the stipend until approval is given.
Information regarding competitive scholarship criteria can be found in the HOP: http://www.utsa.edu/hop/chapter5/5-15.html.
To request a scholarship to be considered competitive, please visit the UTSA SharePoint public folders to access the Request for Competitive Scholarship Out of State Tuition Waiver form.
Please notify students who are receiving a tuition and/or stipend award that financial aid adjustments maybe required to process awards. Please refer to Will Tuition or Stipend Payment Affect a Student's Financial Aid section for additional information.
If your scholarship qualifies for competitive status, ensure that it is approved as competitive prior to submitting the NOA request. Refer to How does a Scholarship Become Competitive section for more information.
To avoid students being assessed late fees, submit NOA request by priority deadlines and be mindful of peak period processing turnaround times. Please refer to Is there a priority deadline to submit Notice of Award (NOA) forms section.
Please make sure there are adequate funds in your cost center/ project ID to process the tuition or stipend NOA request.
Please refer students to the One Stop Enrollment Center for all financial aid and scholarship questions that include tuition and stipend payments. The One Stop Enrollment Center serves as the customer service center to allow our department to focus on processing.
In the event that a Notice of Award cannot be submitted by the semester’s priority deadline, the Tuition/ Stipend Placeholder Spreadsheet can be submitted through the webform using the NOA-question option. We will use the information on the spreadsheet to add a placeholder to the student’s account for the tuition and/or stipend amount your office intends to submit a Notice of Award request for once funding is made available. Requesting placeholders before financial aid disburses may prevent loan adjustment and or other adjustments to the student’s account once the NOA is submitted for processing. Please submit the Tuition/Stipend Placeholder Spreadsheet at least 3 weeks prior to financial aid disbursement to allow time for processing.
Please note that submitting the Tuition/ Stipend Placeholder Spreadsheet does not replace the submission of a Notice of Award request. Our office will not request an out of state tuition waiver (if applicable), and will not disburse funds until we received and processed the Notice of Award request.
